Bloom
by Pandora Imperatrix
Summary: Some loves aren't meant to last and others just need time to bloom.


**Naruto doesn't belong to me.**

 **Unbeta'd.**

 **This was the most wordsy thing I've ever wrote in English, I'm a bit scared.**

* * *

 **Bloom**

"You're cruel, nee-san."

Hinata's smile died, and her steps faltered. The sweet, calm sensation she always felt after having her daily tea with her favourite cousin leaving her body.

She gripped the edges of tray tightly, and started walking again.

"Why do you say that?"

"You shouldn't be so nice to him all the time."

"I try to be nice to everybody, Hanabi."

"But don't you think you are feeding him hope doing that?"

Hinata took a long breath and then sighed.

"Neji-nii-san knows about my heart, I'm not lying to him, I'm not pretending to care about him. I like to be with him too. No, I don't think I'm doing anything wrong."

"So… Do you wish Naruto would do the same to you?"

"It's different."

"How so?"

"Naruto-kun's life is so… distant from mine. Don't get me wrong, it would be a dream come true if he payed attention to me, but if he did that just after I declared myself to him, I'd know it would be just because of my feelings. Not his. And I wouldn't want that. I don't want to him to be with me because he feels obligated somehow. This would never happen between Neji-nii-san and I. There are no obligations between us, not anymore. We were friends when we were young, we grew apart for a while, it's true, but I'm happy that we required closeness lately. And we are family too."

"But you know it isn't friendship of family love that he feels about you."

"You shouldn't go around presuming things about people, Hanabi."

"Oh, please, you know it isn't an absurd what I am saying."

"It doesn't matter, do you think I should answer this supposed romantic feelings with coldness? _That_ wouldn't be cruel?"

"No more than keeping him at arm's length."

They were just about the kitchen's entrance when Hinata stopped and looked to her sister for the first time since they started that conversation.

"Even if I was doing that, and I'm not, cruelty for cruelty, I still prefer the option that keep we both happy."

Nevertheless, even after saying that, she wondered if Hanabi's words held a portion of the truth and she just wasn't being selfish.

"You should stop."

"Why?"

"I don't want to you to get hurt."

"Please don't insult me you too. I was bad enough that I got distracted and let _this_ happen."

She sat back, lowering her hand and taking a good look at him. His face was still livid, maybe what she said had its fault too, but she knew all that anger wasn't towards her. It was funny how everybody considered him expressionless – as any self-respecting Hyuuga would be, and she was not included in either of that – but to her his feelings were always all too obvious.

Earlier that day he saw some misguided men screaming obscenities to her when she was coming home, he – even though she told him time and time again that wasn't necessary, please Neji-nii-san I am ninja too and can take care of myself just fine – was accompanying her from afar, as usual, and decided to teach the losers a lesson. Completely unnecessary in her opinion, and she thought he would make short work of that unfortunate encounter, but for her surprise, he came back with a black eye. Seems like he was so overcome by anger that he let his guard down.

If it wasn't so tragic, she would have laughed.

Really, Hyuuga Neji bearing a black eye, what were the chances?

"I don't mean you eye. I'm sorry."

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.

"Hinata-sama, I'd have done the same either way."

She smiled softly, and went back to applying ice to his swollen face.

"I still wish you wouldn't."

He didn't ask if she meant about protecting her honour or about loving her.

Some loves were just like flowers, she thought.

Beautiful when bloomed.

She felt hers was past that point thought.

And now, her withered petals were being carried by the wind. To far away.

She was sad to watch it go, it was such a huge part of herself for a very long time, it helped her to carry on with her days, to work hard, to care for others, and to see worth within herself. The roots would remain in her heart because now it was just part of her, but it wouldn't flower again.

"And Sai and I will have another mission next week. Kakashi-sensei still have to appoint someone to fill in for Naruto, though."

"He still haven't come back? How long has it been?"

Silence was made when everyone looked at Hinata and she just blinked.

"Hinata?"

"Yes?"

"You don't know?"

"What I should know?"

"How long Naruto has been abroad!"

"Why should I know that? _Sakura-san_ is his teammate."

The other two looked flabbergasted.

"What?!" they said at the same time.

"What?" answered Hinata with a little smile.

"Stop, it is really what I am thinking?" asked Ino, her eyes glowing with excitement. Sakura didn't look as thrilled with her brow deeply frowned.

Hinata just nodded.

"I don't believe it! She's really free! Do you hear that, Sakura?"

"But how this happened? How come you stopped loving him?"

"I don't know. I still care a lot about him, I just… I am tired of waiting for something that will never happen."

"But how do you know it will never happen?"

"Sakura! Come on! You should be happy for her!"

"No, it's ok, Ino-san." She took a deep breath "Well, I told him my feelings, he didn't bother to answering to my confession, I'm not gonna lie, it hurt me, a lot, but you know what? It was better that way, let's face it, he never even thought about be that way, he never thought about me at all. I just… It was better to move on. It was really hard, but I think I did it."

"I'm proud of you, darling" said Ino before engulfing Hinata in a bear hug.

"Oh!" exclaimed Sakura "I'm being silly, of course I'm happy for you too." And then she joined her friends.

Was she sending him mixed signals? She would ask herself. Or was she being selfish and taking advantage of his feelings like Hanabi said? But she couldn't help herself, he just made her feel so good, that's why she increased the time they spent together. And it wasn't because she developed a crush on him like Hanabi was accusing her lately. It was too early to her to start feeling like that for anyone.

No, she didn't have romantic feelings for Neji, at least, not yet.

So what if she could appreciate that he was always there for her? That he made her feel like no matter if the whole family thought she was weak, useless and a failure, he who was so accomplished, more talented than anyone in the clan, and a genius in every sense of the word thought differently, enough to take a piece of his precious time to help her with her training.

She was just grateful, that was it. It was nice to have someone in their family that didn't think she was a waste of time.

Of course, her relationship with Hanabi was a loving one, but it was difficult to not feel smaller beside her younger sister when everyone was always reminding her of how less talented, less accomplished and, taking their father for reference, less loved she was. So, it was nice that someone like Neji cared about her despite the river of bad blood and the huge gap between them.

But sometimes she still wandered if Hanabi was right, maybe she was using him somehow, bathing in his affection for her, but she couldn't just stop herself, it was addicting, being with him was addicting.

With most jounin being out in missions to raise money to the restoration of the village, some concessions were needed to be make, as pairing different ranked ninja in the same mission, that happened to be their situation.

The mission required two byakugan users that were comfortable enough to each other to convince the targets that they were a newlywed couple. They had to steal back a forbidden scroll that the mafia of the Land of the Valleys hid at a casino and pretended to sell it in an auction, and depending of whom bought it, Konoha could be in a tricky situation.

Hinata shouldn't have been surprised by how smoothly the whole affair ran. They had been training together – more like he training her, actually – so they knew how each other thought and worked, and despite her initial insecurity, after all he outranked her in every aspect, there was not even a moment in which she felt he was doing her job or that she was just dragging him behind. They worked like a well-oiled machine, like they had been doing that all their lives. One thing surprised though, it didn't have to do with the professional aspects of the mission, but she never thought she would feel so at ease every time they had to show that they were intimate publicly. It just felt like the most natural thing in the world. She wondered if it wasn't side effects from been together so often, and the training, but that didn't explain why she missed so much the little touches and sharing a bed with him when the mission was over.

"You are ogling again."

"What did you said?"

Hanabi laughed.

"So you are _really_ over nightmare in orange, aren't you?"

"What are you talking about, Hanabi?"

"About the attention you were paying at our dear cousin's but."

"What? I was not!"

"Oh, you were too!"

"This is ridiculous, I was just watching him training with father" but it was true that she was also reliving a very realist dream in which they were back on their last mission and Neji was kissing her.

"I would ask if it's just a carnal thing or if you really like him, but know your cheesy ass, you probably already named your future children."

"Hanabi, you are so silly sometimes."

"The fact you are denying just make it cuter."

"I don't have time for this" she got up and left, Hanabi almost died from laughing too much when her father finally was able to strike a blow at Neji when he lost momentarily his concentration when he glanced at Hinata's departing form.

Oh, the next days would be fun to watch.

He said he was leaving for a long-term mission in two days.

"But your birthday is in three days!"

He actually smiled. A tiny thing, and just for a small moment, but happened.

"Hinata-sama, the Hokage nor the client care about that."

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just… Well, I'm being silly, you probably would already have plans with your team anyway… It's just…"

"I didn't."

"What?"

"I didn't have any plans."

"Oh."

They kept staring into each other eyes, until she noticed that he was probably waiting for her to continue and blushed hard.

"It's just… On you birthday… I had a surprise for you. It wasn't nothing big. I was just prepare herring soba for you… I tried the other day with the boys' help and they said it wasn't bad… Of course Kiba-kun and Akamaru-kun can eat anything, but I trust Shino-kun, and oh I'm sorry, I'm babbling."

She covered her face with her hands.

Neji couldn't actually believe the whole scene. Was Hinata… nervous? Was Hinata nervous around him? He thought they were past that ages ago. What did he do wrong?

"Hinata-sama, are you ok?"

She took a deep breath and looked up to him, her face still a bight shade of red.

"Yeah. I think so… You know, I'll just think about something else. Maybe something you can carry on your mission?"

"You don't have to."

"But I want to."

She said he only could open the present on his birthday, and she promised that wasn't something that would get in the way of his mission, or something too personal that could expose him, so he packed the small package with the intention of only opening it in July third.

It was a little vial with a string, probably to be used around the neck, there was some pills inside, it smelt nice, like some kind of herb he didn't know the name. Glued to the lid was small roll of parchment.

He unrove the parchment and read:

" _Happy birthday, Neji! I'll keep this short, because you probably won't have a lot of time to spare on you mission, so, I made these pills for you to take every time you head hurt from using the byakugan too much. They have no side effects and are completely safe, I tested them myself. Come back soon and be safe!"_

He read his name five times until he finally accepted that his eyes were fine, and yes, she didn't call him "nii-san".

Neji was a realistic person, it was not of his nature to hope, and yet, he couldn't stop his heart from doing so.

Summer became autumn, but he wasn't back yet.

Hinata tried not worry too much. He said it was a long-term mission, he said it would take time. Yet, her heart couldn't be at ease.

She tried to carry on with her days, occupy herself with her own training, missions and friends, but every time she looked behind she expected to find him following her. Sometimes she could almost feel his presence. And she missed him. In the mornings he was her first thought, because she should be going to meet him for their shared training session, the middle of the day was easier, because she could just pretend that he was home, but the evenings were hard, and took time until she stopped bringing two sets of cups for there was no one to have tea with her before bed.

When the winter came, she decided to go to the Hokage's office and ask for news.

"You know it is confidential where they went."

"I know but…"

"No buts! You know the rules."

"Please, Hokage-sama, I don't need details, I just want to know if everyone is fine."

The blond woman sighed, it wasn't unusual to have conceded relatives asking for her men in her office, and she pitied them, but what she could do? Even when she knew something the best thing she could do to keep her shinobi safe was to keep her mouth shut.

"I don't know, Hyuuga. They sent me nothing. You'll just have to wait."

He finally arrived in the two days before the new year. Tired, but not badly hurt save from some scrapes and bruises.

When she saw him trespassing the compound's gate, she threw everything she was holding – her knitting stuff, Hanabi needed a new sweater – her heart pounding. She walked towards him, and took every fibre of her body to not hug him in front of the entire clan.

"You're back. Welcome."

"Thank you, Hinata-sama."

They stood there, just looking at each other, until he turned his face down to look inside of his pouch bag, taking a little package from inside it.

"For you birthday, sorry I missed it" she started opening the present, it was inside of a roll of ninja bandage "and I'm sorry it isn't as practical like you gave me, but I had little time to spare."

She smiled at him.

"You were busy, you didn't have to bring me…" she finally found it in the middle of the fabric, it was a small pedant of a sunflower "…anything."

"Oh, Neji…"

His heart soared. She said it. Ne never liked his name before as much.

"Thank you."

And she didn't care if everyone was watching. She engulfed him in her arms, her eyes shut, her heart happy.

And it was in the winter that a new flower bloomed in her heart, and this time, she could feel it, it would grow into a proud tree, and would flower for years and years, never withering, never dying.

He doesn't quite believe that was really happening to him. It seems to be like something from his dreams, except she never looked so beautiful in his imagination.

The sky is in fire above them, the whole village is welcoming the new year, but he don't see it, all his attention is held by the threads of hair that escaped her hairdo falling on her back covered by the beautiful navy kimono and the heat of the hand of the woman that is taking him far from the commotion of the party and into a wooded training ground.

When she stops, he doesn't say anything, he knows what she is about to do, still, it seems impossible. Yet he doesn't dare to say anything, to do anything, because everything feels surreal, and if he does something wrong he might wake up.

She finally turns her face to him, her face glowing with heat, his mouth feels dry, his heart pumps in his chest. It's ridiculous how she makes him feel, but it's been a long time since he gave up on hating anything related to her, even how weak and stupid his feelings towards her make him become.

She gets closer to him, not once breaking eye contact, she raise her body, standing on her toes and his last coherent thought is that she is indeed very short before her lips are upon his.

Then she's suddenly gone, because no matter how much time that moment last, for him, it would always be too short.

"Hinata-sama… You are shaking."

"Please, help me" she whispers.

His hands go to her waist, but she falls on his chest and he ends up hugging her.

"Do you…" she starts.

"What?"

"Do you still love me?"

Silence.

She makes a move, like she was about to escape his arms, but then he tightens the embrace.

"Yes."

She raise her hands to his chest.

"I think I love you too."

And when he kissed her, she was sure.


End file.
